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From considering retirement to reaching US Open final, Rohan Bopanna takes the historic route in scripting comeback tale
Rohan Bopanna had considered retiring from the sport in 2021 but just over two years later, he is set to play for the biggest title of his career.
India is not a country that has made major strides in tennis at the highest level but there have been a few players who have carried the country's flag in the sport for just over the past two decades. Rohan Bopanna is among the prominent names in that generation and arguably the last of those alongwith the likes of Leander Paes, Sania Mirza, Mahesh Bhupathi.
While most in his generation are either retired or hardly active any more, Bopanna is set to fight for the biggest title of his career at the age of 43. On Friday, he and Australia's Matthew Ebden are set to face defending champions Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury in the final of the 2023 US Open, after beating Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut 7-6 (7-3), 6-2. He this became the oldest man in the Open era to make it to the final of a Grand Slam.
Considering retirement in 2021
It is just the second time since he turned pro all the way back in 2003 that Bopanna is reaching a Major final in men's doubles, with the previous occasion also being at the US Open in 2010. However, just over two years ago, Bopanna was seriously considering if the sport is even worth all the effort. Bopanna had a terrible start to the year in 2021, losing all matches he played and winning just a set.
“I was sitting near the ocean and I was telling myself, ‘What am I even doing? I'm not even winning matches, I have a family at home. Should I just call it a day and just go back?’” Bopanna told ATPTour.com. “Our daughter was four years old right now and I thought, ‘Why not? Let's do that.’”
It wasn't just the results that had led to Bopanna considering hanging up his boots and racquet. Bopanna had been dealing with stinging pain in his knees for two years as his cartilage bore the brunt of the rigours he had put in over the course of his long career. He says that he practically has no cartilage in his knees any more.
“It's worn out completely. It's just worn out. It's not a tear. Both my knees have no cartilage and in 2019 I was on two, three painkillers a day,” Bopanna said. “[In] 2020 I started Iyengar yoga, and that actually made a tremendous difference. I went from two, three painkillers a day to no painkillers today. I think the only time sometimes I take an anti-inflammatory is from playing two matches a day. At that time the body says, ‘Hello, please slow down, you still have no cartilage.’”
A dream year
The general logic in sports that are as physically demanding as tennis is that any long term injuries after the age of 35 would bring you one step closer to retirement. But Bopanna has upended that narrative this year, re-entering the top 10 men’s doubles tennis after seven years. The 2023 US Open is not even the first Grand Slam this year in which he has reached a final. That was the Australian Open, in which he partnered up with Mirza and finished runner-up.
At the Louis Armstrong Stadium on Monday, Bopanna and Ebden were down 4-2 in the first set, which the Indian later said was the turning point in the match. “I think the turning point was when we were down 4-2 in the 1st set and saved a break point from going double break down. That kept us in the match," said Bopanna in the post-match interview.
The first set eventually went into tie-breaker which the Indo-Australian pair won 7-3. Mahut had needed a medical timeout towards the end of that set as well, struggling with the heat like many other players at the US Open this year. Bopanna and Ebden had all the momentum going into the second set and they were ruthless in their execution. "We also had great energy from the crowd. Back in the final after 13 years, happy to be back. I love New York, so why not," said Bopanna
